Amazon Sued For Charging Audiences For Ads-Free Experience Over And Above Upfront Subscription

Last Updated:July 01, 2026, 10:54 IST

Australian competition watchdog has taken Amazon to court for allegedly using unfair terms to charge audiences for an ads-free experience after they already paid for subscription.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has sued Amazon for allegedly using unfair contract terms to introduce advertisements in Prime Video streaming, a statement issued by Australia’s competition watchdog said on Tuesday. The contracts, the focus of this lawsuit, affects over a million annual subscribers that the streaming service added between November 2023 and August 2025.

“Between November 2023 and August 2025, Amazon AU’s Prime contracts with more than one million annual subscribers contained what the ACCC alleges were five unfair contract terms that allowed it to unilaterally make negative changes during the contract period without offering subscribers a remedy," the statement said.

It further explained that Amazon later used one or more of these unfair terms to introduce ads in July 2024. “Prior to that, Amazon Prime Video was almost entirely ad-free," the competition watchdog said.

The ACCC alleges that Amazon charged consumers $79 upfront to access the content on its platform and then later, using the aforementioned unfair terms, charged them again for an ads-free experience.

“Consumers who wanted to avoid ads were left with no choice but to pay more to maintain the service they’d initially signed up for", ACCC said. Meanwhile, Amazon has said that it is reviewing the case filed against it by the ACCC, according to a report by BBC.

“We have cooperated with the ACCC throughout its investigation and remain focused on providing the best experience for our Australian customers", the streaming giant said, as quoted in the BBC report.

Amazon Prime Video was an ads-free streaming platform for over a decade for its paid subscribers. People could get the subscription of Amazon as an upgrade on its core delivery service.

Amazon Prime Video’s content became available for streaming in India in 2016. The company then started rolling out adverts on its platform since early 2024.

In Australia, Amazon told its subscribers, in early 2024, that if they wished to continue enjoying an ads-free streaming experience, they must pay a monthly amount. This drove up the price to 12.99 Australian Dollars in the ‘land down under’.

News world Amazon Sued For Charging Audiences For Ads-Free Experience Over And Above Upfront Subscription

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